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How to Convert PNG to JPG the Right Way

Occasionally you may need to convert a PNG file (especially one with a transparent background) to a JPG file. I find this necessary with my clipart graphics when wanting to upload directly to other sites and the transparency is a problem (more on that below).

There are a lot of other posts telling you how to quickly convert png files to jpg files without the use of design software. And almost all of these contain a lot of very bad information.

For this tutorial I'm going to give you just one option. It's a good one. It's free. No software involved.

We're going to use Adobe Express, a free online tool from the makers of the world's favourite design software programs. Reliable and trustworthy, it's also easy, and AD FREE!

NOTE: You will need to create an account in order to download the converted files, but it's an easy signup, no commitments and the same account gives you access to any of Adobe's free tools.

Open Adobe Express with the link above. Click the Upload Image button. Then drag and drop or browse for your image. Once uploaded to the web page it is instantly converted. Automatically. In a blink.

All you have to do is click the Download button. Files are sent to your computer's download folder. This tool is by far the easiest, smoothest and most reliable converter I have tried.

While we're here though, let's talk a little bit about PNG files and one reason why you might even need a tool like this.

One of the downsides of PNG files that have transparent backgrounds is that not all websites play nicely with them. If you upload such a file to a site not specifically designed to handle them properly you're likely to end up with a hot mess.

Because I sell all my files in PNG format, and because my customers very often want to directly upload these files on various social platforms or shop fronts, it's an issue that comes up a lot.

Here's a couple examples using my Etsy shop. Etsy has not designed their site to handle PNG transparency properly. This is noticeable mostly in the profile pic or shop button slots where people are most likely to upload these types of file.

You can absolutely upload PNG files here, you just have to have a solid background rather than a transparent one. (this is what I do) For my customers though, a quick JPG conversion is the easiest quickest solution because it adds a default white background.

In the first example we're looking at my profile pic. The image on the left shows my avatar uploaded with a transparent background versus the one on the right that has a solid color background. See the difference? Etsy added a black background but there's also some ugly distortion happening as well around the images edges.

In my second example you see my shop button PNG on left with a transparent background behind the circle. And what it should look like on the right when a solid background is added. This one has an interesting distortion effect that's actually not to ugly. But I've seen some real messes, it depends on the image how that turns out, it's not predictable.

So if you see something like this happening when you upload images to a website, just add a background or convert to JPG to solve the problem!

Happy creating!
Shawnna

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How to Resize an image in Pixlr

In this quick tutorial we're going to re-size one of my avatar PNG graphics and save as JPG ready to use as a profile pic on social media. Every site has different image size requirements and while some sites allow you to resize during the upload process, for many other sites, you'll need your image to be exactly the right size.

For this example, just to show you how to do it, I'm going to take a 400px square image and reduce it to 200px using the free online editor Pixlr.

Start by opening your web browser and navigating to pixlr.com.

It will look like this:

STEP 1:

Let's get setup. Pixlr has two editor options. We're doing something very basic so let's use Pixlr X (on the left). Click this box and the editor will open up right on your screen.

It should look like this...

Now we need to upload our image. Click the "Open Image" button and navigate your computer files to find the image you want to re-size, select that file and click ok.

It will appear on your screen like so:

STEP 2:

To size the image we need to open the "Layout" box. This is the third icon down in the left hand icon menu. In this menu we want the "Resize page (scale)" option.

Click this button and another menu box will open where we'll make our adjustments.

STEP 3:

You should now see the following box, which tells you the current dimensions of the image measured in pixels.

Like so...

All we need to do here is change the number 400 to 200.

You'll see two toggle switches for constrain and smoothing. These should be on (blue) and left on, don't change these.

You also want to size DOWN, never size up on raster images like this or they will be blurry. Your screen should now look like the example below. Click apply to make the change to the image.

STEP 4:

All that's left to do is save and download the re-sized image. At the bottom right of your screen you'll see a blue "Save" button. Click this and a menu box will appear. Most likely the save menu will choose the same file format the graphic is already in. In this case we have resized a PNG image so it's suggesting PNG as the save option.

However, because I'm uploading the image as a profile pic I don't want a transparent background (some sites replace transparency with black and you get a distortion in the image). If I save as a JPG a default white background will be applied and I'll get a better upload to my social media page.

Choose JPG from this menu unless you know you need a PNG with a transparent background.

This is what the JPG saving options look like. I'm going to leave all the settings at the default because I want as high a quality as possible.

Now just click save as, rename your file if you want to, click ok and the image will automatically download to your computer's download folder.

Job done!